They'll say anything

In the weak and often goofy attempts by Republicans to stand up and defend Bush's illegally spying on U.S. citizens without a warrent, (even one issued after the fact), the right has often relied on the false premise that when congress granted the president the authorization to go after al Queda in Afghanistan, that it also granted him the right to blatantly violate the law and engage in domestic eavesdroping without any oversight or warrant whatsoever. They bellow that anyone who'd object to this, especially while we're at WAR (and should be scared to death. they hasten to remind us), must be crazy.

They say it's ridiculous to question allowing our rights to be trampled in the fight against terror, but does anyone recall that John Ashcroft, our lunatic former attorney general, actually went to court to argue that his own department did not have the right to review the gun purchase records of suspected terrorists?

Ashcroft maintained that he couldn't possibly check the gun purchase records of suspected terrorists because, using the strictest interpretation of the law, it would be a violation to view them, no matter if it might help prevent further acts of terror. That right was sacrosanct.

I don't recall all these Republican now mocking anyone who objects to throwing away our right to privacy screaming bloody murder when Ashcroft was making the argument that checking terrorist's gun records were a violation of their rights.

Once again, it's not priciple, but sheer lying and hypocrisy that rules the day for the Republicans. They'll say anything, even toying with the constitution, breaking the law, or hampering the investigation of terror suspects, to hold on to power and cover their asses politically.

If they want to spy on you, then it's obviously correct, after all, they're protecting us from terror. But check gun purchase records for terrorist? Now that's going too far.

"The FBI will not be permitted to compare the names of suspected terrorists against federal gun purchase records, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft told the Senate yesterday, offering no encouragement to senators willing to guarantee the FBI the authority to do so.

Defending his decision to block the FBI from using gun documents in its terror probe, Ashcroft said the law does not allow investigators to review the federal records created when a buyer applies to purchase a weapon at a gun store.

Some critics charged that Ashcroft's strong opposition to gun control is interfering with his role as the government's top cop. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, accusing him of 'handcuffing' the FBI, pressed him unsuccessfully to say why he did not seek access to gun records when he claimed expanded investigatory powers after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

When Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) asked Ashcroft whether he wants the power to review gun records in the fight against terrorism, Ashcroft replied that he would not comment on a 'hypothetical.'